Friday, December 23, 2011

Banished!

It appears I have been completely and utterly excommunicated by the founding fathers of the mat riding community. Magic Carpet Ride no longer appears as a link on SURFMATTERS and none of my comments on any posts are approved. I think God has spoken!
Fortunately, it is no longer the middle ages, and the internet allows shunned folk such as myself to continue to do what we do. In my case, that is to record my mat riding journey and how what is happening in the whole global mat riding community, rather than the filtered depiction some would prefer, impacts on that journey.
Anyway, PG has been posting like mad lately and as I can't get any of my comments approved I thought I may as well comment here instead and not even God can stop me doing that!

The latest post relates to night mat riding and that certainly sounds like it would be terrific fun but a little disconcerting at the same time. I would sure as hell like plenty of moonlight to quell my quivering nerves and I am not confident that would help much!

I am particularly taken with this image for a couple of reasons. One, I would love to have been one of those riders as that wave looks like it is setting up to be a great party wave with plenty of opportunities for passing and bumping. Secondly, it kinda reminds me of dolphins too, who are mad to share waves, but just underneath the surface, of course, rather than on top as these three very lucky gentlemen are doing.

Oh and I was wondering if anybody has sighted, purchased or ridden a surf mat that has actually been made by GG?
No? Oh ok then. Here is something to ponder, assuming I am correct in thinking that I must have been banished from SURFMATTERS as GG still has a financial interest in Fourth Gear Flyer as he was one of the founding partners along with Dale Solomonson. What is the difference between GG assisting with research and testing for a mat maker in the US and Mark Thomson doing the same but having his mats manufactured in Taiwan?
Now for those of you who seem to have had a problem gauging this in the past, I am actually stirring the pot this time! Tsk, Tsk! Heathen, get thee from my church!

11 comments:

sorry to hear that robin, you have been one of the most positive voices for mats and have given much to the spread of the 4th gear love that to banish you is quite an insult to the community.I really like the fact that you are an independent free thinking mat surfer who has no agenda with the blog and that is another reason that I enjoy the facebook page in that there are no mat builders on there so we are free to just discuss matting. Thanks for this blog it really is appreciated.

"To the best of my knowledge, George Greenough has personally made very few surf mats. He did pioneer mat surfing on the old rubber and canvas designs. He has never actively promoted surf mats, or sold them in Swaylocks. George dislikes typing on keyboards, has no Internet connection, or email address.

In late 1982, George paid me to develop and create the first modern generation nylon and polyurethane mat... it was a successful experiment, and weighed less than 16 ounces. Previous rubber and canvas mats averaged 5 to 7 pounds!"

Thanks Jonathon. Merry Christmas to you too. You are correct. Until this post there has been no intentional "shit stirring" previously.

Neumatics-R-Us. If you are going to continue to comment on this blog would you please do me, and the many others who visit here, the simple respect of identifying yourself and stop hiding behind that nickname!